Chapter One – Platform 9¾ Again

A shrill warning whistle blew, causing the busy platform full of students to hastily bid farewell to their parents and start banging their trunks and various animal cages up the stairs and onto the carriages of the grand scarlet train. Severus Snape looked around at his sallow-faced mother, who smiled sadly at him and gave him a quick squeeze goodbye. Severus nodded then turned away, dragging his heavy trunk onto the train.

Walking through the halls, he finally came to an empty compartment and slid open the door, stowing his trunk in the overhead storage, and slumping down in his seat just as the Hogwarts Express began to move. It was his final year at Hogwarts, but he wasn't sure he really wanted to be there. Before he could dwell on this thought, however, his compartment door slid open again.

James Potter, accompanied by Sirius Black and little Peter Pettigrew—their other lackey, Remus Lupin, was most likely in the prefects' carriage—stood at the door, leering down at him. Acting instinctively, Severus jumped to his feet and dove into his pocket, yanking his wand out, but Potter was too fast for him. He flew backwards and hit the window with a sickening crack in his skull, sliding down to the floor in a daze. Shaking his head, Severus raised his wand, but before he could so much as think of a hex, he was hoisted into the air by his ankle, his injured head hitting the window again and his wand flying out of his hand.

"We would have waited until you'd changed into your robes, Snivellus, so we'd get a nice view of your underpants again, but we were bored," sneered Black, "and decided to come have some fun now." Pettigrew sniggered beside them.

Furious, Severus glared at the trio and kicked his foot out violently, causing the jinx to break and him to come crashing to the floor.

"I see the slime ball has been practicing," Potter said with a jeering look on his face. A split second later, there was a bright flash of light and a loud bang, and all three boys were suddenly lying on their backs in the aisle. Astonished, Severus looked down at his wand. It had rolled under a seat, so he hadn't had a chance to collect it yet, but he was sure wands couldn't act of their own accord. Looking back up, a girl with long red hair stood at the entrance to his compartment holding a trunk of her own, glaring down at him.

Slamming the compartment door behind her, the girl stalked over to Severus and thrust her hand out for him to take. He grasped it and stood quickly. Brushing himself off, he looked down at the girl and opened his mouth.

"Lily, I—" But Lily held up her hand to silence him.

"I see you've made an effort to wash your hair since the last time I saw you," she said crisply. Severus's cheeks reddened slightly as he opened his mouth to try to speak again.

"Why did you bother if—" but he was silenced once more with Lily's hand.

"It was a joke, Sev," she said, her face relaxing a little, allowing a grin to fall over it. She reached out and brushed a bit of dust from Severus's shoulder, tossed her trunk into the alcove above, and then plopped down into a seat. Severus sat down tentatively across from her, confused and unsure of what to say.

The previous year had come and gone without so much as a contemptuous glare from Lily. She had stopped speaking to him at the end of their fifth year, because he had called her 'Mudblood', a loathsome and inexcusable thing to call one of Muggle descent. So why she was here now, after a whole year, talking to him, even smiling at him a little, he had no idea. He had been convinced that she hated him.

"What're you—" Again, Severus was cut off.

"Look, last year, with Avery and Mulciber, what they did, and what you did, I know it couldn't have been easy, and I…" she sighed and looked down at her hands. "Oh, Sev, I'm sorry I've let this carry on for so long. I've been so stupid… You were my first friend here, and—and I just… Oh, I don't know, Sev. With You-Know-Who gone, it just seems silly to hold a grudge anymore. Will you forgive me?" Lily gazed up at Severus, her almond-shaped emerald eyes blazing. She looked fierce, as if she dared him to say no, but at the same time, afraid that he really would say no.

After a moment, he said, in a hoarse voice, "'Course I do, Lily." Positively beaming, Lily threw herself across the compartment and hugged Severus with a might he didn't realize she had in her. Bemused, he hugged her back. How he had ached to have her back, to have her look at him like that again… He would do everything in his power to keep from messing this chance up.

As the hours passed, Lily and Severus chattered away, catching up after a year of silence, clearing the cobwebs. Soon, it was as though they had never stopped speaking. Dark had fallen outside the train now, they would be nearing the school soon. They pulled on their robes—hers Gryffindor, his Slytherin—and sat back down. The compartment door slid open once more, revealing Potter, quite alone, in his school robes.

"A word, Evans?" he said, jerking his head over his shoulder to indicate he wanted her to come out to the corridor. With a great roll of her eyes at Severus, she sighed loudly and hoisted to her feet as though it took a great effort, then followed James out into the hall. The compartment door shut behind them.

It was just like that arrogant little toad to come barging in, thought Severus as he crossed his arms angrily over his chest. He couldn't hear what they were saying over the roar of the engine and the rush of the countryside flashing by outside, but he felt sure he had an idea. Potter had had his eye on Lily for years, yet she had never shown him one ounce of interest in return. Severus knew Potter had loathed him back before Lily and Severus had their falling out, just for the mere fact that Lily preferred talking to him over Potter. But last year had been absolutely unbearable. With Lily no longer talking to Severus, Potter had felt it necessary to make his life a living hell, since he no longer feared retribution from Lily.

Then the incident with Avery and Mulciber, and the Dark Lord had come close, very close to succeeding… Severus had very nearly stayed home this year. Had it not been for the fact that living at home was almost certainly worse than living under the torment of Potter and Black and Lily's cold shoulder, he was sure he wouldn't have come back. But he had, and now he was very glad indeed that he had. Until, of course, Potter stuck his great fat head in and ruined what had otherwise been a decent trip back to Hogwarts.

Severus was suddenly aware of someone shouting. Listening closely, he could just make out the words over the surrounding noises.

"—does it matter to you if I'm on speaking terms with him again? At least I don't go round jinxing him whenever I get the chance!" It was clearly Lily's voice. Potter's retort came back just as loudly.

"What does it matter? What does it— Are you insane? Look at him! He's so steeped in the Dark Arts that I'm surprised You-Know-Who didn't come to collect him before trying to blow up the school last year! Have you forgotten who he used to run around with? Have you forgotten what they did last year?"

"Of course I haven't! But if Severus hadn't acted, hadn't done what he did, a lot more people would have died, not just poor little Habren—"

"Oh, so you think he was acting the hero? You've forgotten what house he's in, Evans. Slytherin! They don't act the hero, they save their own necks before worrying about anything else, and that's what he was doing, he was saving his own neck! He knew Dumbledore was going to be furious, so he did what he had to do to make it look like a setup, to make himself look the victim. I don't trust him one bit, Evans, and you shouldn't either! If you think I'm going to stand by and let you hang around with that scum again, you're sadly mistaken!"

"Oh, you'll let me, will you? Since when are you the boss of me? Since when do I have to run by who I hang around with you? You know, Sev was right all along, you really are an arrogant ass!"

With that, the compartment door flew open. Severus caught a glimpse of Potter standing there with his mouth hanging open to form a rebuttal Lily would never hear, before she slammed the door shut again, with such a force that the glass pane fell from the little window and shattered.

"Reparo!" Lily said angrily, flinging her wand toward the mess at her feet. The glass flew gracefully back up to the window, where it settled itself back in, good as new. Fearing she might turn her anger on him next, Severus tried to look anywhere but her. He heard her lightly sigh and sit down in her seat.

"Sev," she said softly, and he looked up at her. "Sev, I made a mistake once listening to him. I lost a best friend last year, and I'm not going to let him dictate who I see anymore. You have my word that, unless you do something absolutely dreadful to me, I won't leave again."

Severus's chest filled with a warm feeling he hadn't felt in over a year. He smiled at Lily, the object of his affection, and nodded. A whistle blew somewhere off in the distance, at the head of the train, and it began to slow down as they neared the castle. The two sat in silence until the train came to a complete stop, and, after retrieving their luggage, they set off down the corridor toward their final year at Hogwarts.